Mississippi's teacher shortage prompts proposed license flexibility

Schools are required to employ licensed teachers in order to meet state accreditation requirements. But not all districts have that option.
Wochit

More than 400 educators were unlicensed in Mississippi during the 2016 school year. But a new proposal that would bring flexibility to licensing requirements could boost the number of licensed teachers in the state.(Photo: Eli Baylis, The Clarion-Ledger)

A candidate could also meet the requirement by having 21 hours of coursework at either the undergraduate or graduate level in the subject matter.

To renew the license for a second year, license holders would have to show proof of enrollment in an alternate route program.

Right now, the state doesn’t give teachers the option of having a year to meet requirements for an alternate program, before receiving the temporary license.

Instead, to be admitted into an alternate route program, candidates must pass a content test called the Praxis.

Several states, including Mississippi, tie licensure to the assessment.

And the use of the Praxis to screen out potential teachers has been controversial. Critics have argued the test cannot be used as a predictor of teacher quality or future performance.

School leaders have also protested that the assessment operates as a deterrent.

Over the summer, the Mississippi Department of Education received an influx of pleas from several Delta-based superintendents, an area historically plagued by teacher shortages, detailing the challenges the requirement presented for applicants and in turn for superintendents already struggling to recruit highly qualified teachers.

School chiefs representing the Clarksdale, Sunflower County, Coahoma County, Greenwood and Greenville school systems told the state that requiring teacher candidates to pass the Praxis, before enrolling in an alternate route program, meant many teacher candidates were effectively stopped before they started.

“We fully recognize that there must not be an ‘open gate’ into the educational profession that minimizes and reduces the significance of the staff that serves students in said professor,” Sunflower Superintendent Miskia Davis wrote. “However, the reality is that we must have a method of recruiting and hiring the next tier of individuals that want to impact the lives of children for the better, but lack the necessary credentials.”

Because the proposed regulation change still requires that candidates pass the Praxis before renewing their temporary license, in some scenarios the change might only serve as a stopgap. Aspiring teachers might easily obtain the license for year one, but there’s a chance they might not meet the muster of the amped-up requirements for year two.

Cory Murphy, director of educator licensure for MDE, acknowledged there’s no guarantee that those qualifying for year one of the temporary license would eventually become certified. It’s one reason he explained the department emphasizes that the temporary license should be seen as a last resort and the state limits its renewal to three years.

Ideally, he explained, districts would hire a candidate meeting all teacher certification requirements on the front end or someone who is already enrolled in an alternate route program.

“We (MDE) wanted to give them temporary options until they actually get individuals out of the pipeline,” Murphy said.